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The Wimbledon champion looks for the way up to join his father, Pat Cash, sr, right, his sister, Renee, and coach Ian Barclay. Help
The Wimbledon champion looks for the way up to join his father, Pat Cash, sr, right, his
sister, Renee, and coach Ian Barclay.
Cash in the final... "Pat doesn't know how to step back. He accepts all challenges and tries his guts out." Help
Cash in the final... "Pat doesn't know how to step back. He
accepts all challenges and tries his guts out."
He just played great
The man from Melbourne tees off again on centrecourt. Help
The man from Melbourne tees off again on
centrecourt.
LONDON, Monday: With the Wim
bledon crown in his keeping, Pat Cash
may well become one of the greatest play
ers in Australian tennis history.
His perfectly controlled demonstration
of servc-and-volley tennis in beating Ivan
Lcndl comprehensively 7-6, 6-2, 7-5 in
vites comparison with some of the great
performances by Australians at Wimble
don in our golden period stretching over
■ the 1950s and 1960s.
It is doubtful whether any Australian
has volleyed better than Cash did — not
even Lew Hoad, Rod Laveror John New
combe, whose volleying was of an excep
tionally high standard!
What has to be borne in mind was that
Cash was playing the world's No 1 ranked
player, a veteran of 13 Grand Slam finals,
and a man renowned for the severity of
his ground strokes.
Amazingly, Cash denied Lcndl a single
point on any of his four services in the
second set.
In the first set, he gave him only six
points on his service up to the tie-break.
Moreover, Cash returned Lendl's
booming service more consistently than
anybody has done for a long time.
He himself believed that was the key to
his victory.
"I knew I was returning well and Ian
[Barclay, his coach] said, 'Anything you
get back is a bonus against this guy'.
"It didn't matter how I got the ball
back, I just had to do it, and that's the way
you have to play, especially on grass.
"But Lendl has a tough serve. He hits it
very hard and it really does bounce high. I
had quite a bit of difficulty with his serve.
"I had to have a go at his second serve,
and I had some good results in the first
and second sets."
Cash had watched Lendl's semi-final
with Stefan Edberg on television and no
ticed that on many big points Lcndl
would serve wide to the backhand.
Cash was prepared for that serve, and
his returns from that wing were often
devastating. Lendl agreed with Cash's as
sessment.
"He just played great," said the very
disappointed Czech, runner-up now two
years in a row. "I couldn't make any
impression on his serve, whereas he put
so much pressure on my serve.
"He was getting his returns back, lob
bing and dinking.
"I thought I had a very good chance of
winning, but he just played better in every
department"
Lendl is in the best position to compare
Cash with Boris Becker, who beat him in
the 1986 final, also in straight sets.
"They are different kinds of players,"
he said. "They're both great on grass.
"Cash plays more strategic tennis with
out that much power. Becker just uses
brute force."
The maturing of Pat Cash in the past
two years has all the hallmarks one would
associate with an outstanding champion.
To recall that he was ranked 413th at
the start of last year's Wimbledon after
months of distress with a back injury
sustained in 1985, followed by an appen
dectomy only three weeks before the tour
nament began, is staggering.
Now, he will be in the world's top 10
and perhaps soon pressing Lendl and
Becker for the top spot.
In retrospect, it can be seen'that Cash's
back injury was the catalyst that made
him realise how single-minded he would
need to be if he were to achieve his poten
tial.
The setback hardened his self-disci
pline.
The rehabilitation exercises he did not
only strengthened his back but made him
possibly the fittest player in the game.
According to his father, the work was
so tough that Cash could only do it on
alternate-days and was so exhausted after
wards he would drag himself to bed and
was asleep within minutes.
Barclay said: "He grew up overnight,
during that injury year. It was very frus
trating for me, but he has this amazing
willpower to win.
"Pat doesn't know how to step back.
He accepts all challenges and tries his guts
out."
Cash's fiery nature is a characteristic he
is learning to channel more sensibly.
His conduct throughout Wimbledon
was generally exemplary and his concen
tration benefited as a result. All the fire in
his belly was directed at consuming his
opponents with intense, systematic ag
gression.
"His temper and his ability go hand in
hand," said Barclay. "He's so hard on
himself. He's a perfectionist."
Cash himself believes he will be a more
relaxed and less abrasive individual now
that he has achieved his lifetime ambi
tion.
He is still likely to be involved in the
occasional controversial incident, but al
most certainly the Wimbledon champi
onship will add further to his maturity.
At the age of 22, his record includes two
Davis Cup triumphs as well as a Wimble
don crown, and the pride those achieve
ments will engender should ensure a
greater sense of responsibility.
As for the material rewards, Pat Cash is
about to become a multi-millionaire. Be
fore the final, his career earnings stood at
$US720,07I. He earned about
$US250,000 with his win.
He will earn huge bonuses with most of
his endorsement contracts. When they
expire, his father, who is his manager, will
be able to ask much, more more for their
renewal.
Cash also automatically becomes one
of the most sought-after players for exhi
bitions, which can net him hundreds of
thousands of dollars a time.
.In the immediate future, Cash plans to
return soon to Australia and prepare for
the Davis Cup quarter-final with Mexico
in Brisbane later this month.
Then he will start thinking of the US
Open, beginning in late August.
Lendlwill probably be favoured to win
that title for the third time. But it may
cross Lendl's mind that in 1984, when
Cash lost to John McEnroe in the Wim
bledon semi-finals, the Australian then
reached the US semi-finals, where he held
a match point against Lendl before losing
a five-set cliff-hanger.
if he goes one better this year, the Pat
Cash era in world tennis will well and
truly have arrived.
Italy's Diego Nargiso beat Jason Stol
tenberg, of Narrabri and the Australian
Institute of Sport, 7-6,6-4 in the Wimble
don junior boys' final.
Stoltenberg, who won a 2'^-hour semi
final against American Jim Courier dur
ing which he suffered a severe nose bleed,
was a bit tired in the final.
He found it difficult to cope with Nar
giso's powerful service, but had his
chance of taking the first set when he led
4-0 in the tie-break.
The Italian won the tie-break 8-6 and
was always in command in the second set.
Australia's national coach, Ray Ruf
fcls, said, "Obviously, it's disappointing.
But let's not forget Pat Cash lost at Ja
son's age [17] and he's not doing too
badly now."
Stoltenberg gained some consolation
when he and Todd Woodbridge, also of
NSW, beat Nargiso and his compatriot E.
Rossi 6-3,7-6 in the boys' doubles final.
$